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"I'M a little embarrassed," Liu Jing leaned in closer and lowered her voice,revealing for the first time a hint of discomfort since the topic of credit cards had been broached.
“我有点不好意思，”刘静靠在柜台上放低声音说，自信用卡问题被提出以来第一次暗示不适。
Liu was born in Henan. After four years at the university she landed a position as a junior executive at a digital advertising firm.
刘出生在河南。经过四年大学她谋得了数字广告公司初级主管的一个职位。
As a junior executive, she netted 5,000 yuan (US$800) a month after taxes. From this, she paid 2,000 yuan per month in rent for a shared flat near Beijing's fourth ring road. This left her with 3,000 yuan a month in disposable income, or 100 yuan a day.
作为一个初级管理人员，她税收后一个月赚5000元人民币(合800美元)。从中她每月要为北京四环路附近合租的房子支付2000元的房租。这每个月给她留下3000元的可支配收入，或100元一天。
With this sum, she had to cover her remaining living expenses. She was hard-pressed to make ends meet.
这么一点儿钱，她必须兼顾到她剩下的生活开支。她很难使得收支平衡。
At this moment, a friend recommended that Liu apply for a UnionPay credit card from one of China's large state-owned banks.
这时，一个朋友建议刘向中国的大型国有银行申请银联信用卡。
At first, Liu used the card to make ends meet.
起初，刘使用这张信用卡还能使收支平衡。
But as time went on, the allure of this "extra" income and the social benefits it allowed compelled Liu to slowly increase her borrowing. She soon discovered that borrowing is a slippery slope.
但随着时间的推移，这份“额外”收入的诱惑以及其允诺的社会福利迫使刘慢慢增加着她的借贷。她很快发现借款是一项滑坡谬误。
After using the card for one year, she had accumulated debt of 15,000 yuan, or three times her previous monthly income. She had no plan for paying off the balance.
在使用信用卡一年之后，她已经累积债务15000元，是她以前月收入的三倍。她没有计划偿还借贷。
Since being introduced in 1985, the number of credit cards issued in China has grown at an astonishing rate, reaching 285 million in 2011, five times the number in 2006. Growth has remained consistently high and is expected to continue at 31 percent per year over the next five years.
自从在1985年被介绍进来，信用卡在中国的发行数量以惊人的速度增长，在2011年达到2.85亿，这一数字是2006年的5倍。增速仍持续走高，预计在接下来的五年将继续以每年31%的速度增长。
According to the 2012 Chinese Credit Card Industry Bluebook, US$1.2 trillion of purchases were made with credit cards in China in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 48 percent.
根据2012年中国信用卡行业蓝皮书，中国在2011年有1.2万亿美元的购买是通过信用卡支付的，比去年同期增长48%。
Over the next decade, the country is expected to become the largest credit card market in the world by number of issued cards, overtaking the United States.
在接下来的十年，通过发行的信用卡数量中国预计将成为世界上最大的信用卡市场，超越美国。
Although the figure is high, it is worth noting that in China, credit cards are still used mostly for large-ticket items, while cash is still the predominant payment method for smaller purchases. Indeed, one study on credit card holders in Shanghai showed that 80 percent of purchases below 100 yuan are made with cash.
虽然这个数字很高，但值得注意的是，在中国信用卡仍主要用于大件商品，对于小型购买现金仍然是主要的支付方式。事实上，一项对上海信用卡持有者的研究表明100元以下的购买80%是使用现金。
Changing attitude
改变的观念
Despite these optimistic growth projections, China's cash-centric consumer culture and traditional beliefs about personal finance have meant that consumers are resistant to change, thus slowing the adoption of electronic payment methods.
尽管有这些乐观的增长预期，中国以现金为中心的消费文化和对个人理财的传统信仰意味着消费者抗拒变革，从而缓慢采用着电子支付方式。
Many of these cultural beliefs stem from Confucian values, which see borrowing as shameful because it means living beyond one's means.
这些文化信念很多是源于儒家价值观，视借贷为可耻的，因为这意味着生活不自足。
However, Western consumption-driven lifestyles are finding their way into China, especially among the youth.
然而，西方消费驱动型的生活方式正在逐渐进入中国，特别是青年之中。
This is demonstrated by the materialization of a new class of yue guang zu, those "with no savings at the end of the month." This group includes young urban students and professionals under 35, largely in first and second tier cities, who have begun to abandon some of the cultural taboos surrounding borrowing money in order to fund their modern, highly consumerist lifestyles, in some cases spending well beyond their means.
这由那些“月底没有储蓄”的新阶层“月光族”的物质化来证实。这一群体包括年轻的城市学生和35岁以下的专业人员，主要在一二线城市，他们已经开始放弃一些文化禁忌，通过借钱来支付他们现代高消费主义的生活方式，某些情况下开支远远超出他们的能力。
Many of these changes in the cultural attitude toward credit have been driven by aggressive marketing by banks issuing credit cards, which offer rewards, discounts and so on to encourage spending.
这些对信用卡的文化态度的变化很多是由积极的信贷市场所驱动，通过银行发行的信用卡、提供奖励、折扣等来鼓励消费。
